Acted in
television: "The Bus to Nowhere" (1951), episode of Out There; "Miracle
on 34th Street" (1955), episode of The 20th-Century Fox Hour; "Sound
of Murder" (1955), "Dr. Robot," "The Green Bomb"
(1956), episodes of Science Fiction Theatre; "The Little Lame Prince"
(1958), episode of Shirley Temple Theatre; "Brainwave"
(1959), episode of One Step Beyond; "Christmas on the Moon" (1959),
episode of Men into Space; "Burglar Proof" (1962), episode
of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; "Nightmare" (1963), episode of
The Outer Limits; "Behind the Locked Door" (1963), episode of The
Alfred Hitchcock Hour; "The Peacemaker" (1965), episode of Voyage
to the Bottom of the Sea; "The Man's Men" (1965), episode of Amos
Burke, Secret Agent; "The Fastest Gun in the East" (1966),
episode of I Dream of Jeannie; "The Bat Cave Affair" (1966),
episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; The Time Tunnel (tv series)
(1966-1967); "The Trouble with Tribbles" (1967), episode of Star
Trek; "The Dark Outpost" (1967), episode of The Invaders;
"The Secret City of Limbo" (1970), episode of Land of the Giants;
City Beneath the Sea (tv movie) (Irwin
ALLEN 1971); "Numbered for
Death" (1973), episode of Search; "Over the Hill Spy" (1977),
episode of The Bionic Woman; The Time Machine (tv movie)
(Henning Schallerup 1978); "Sighting 4023: The I-Man Incident" (1978),
episode of Project U.F.O.; "Kindred Spirits" (1979),
"Prometheus" (two parts) (1980), episodes of The Incredible Hulk;
"Lost in Translation" (1982), episode of Darkroom;
"Trials and Tribble-ations" (1996), episode of Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine.

Appeared
in documentaries: Time Machine: The Journey Back (Clyde Lucas 1993);
The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen (Kevin Burns 1995).

Whit Bissell functioned
as a generic marker: if you saw his unforgettable face in the background of
some film, you immediately knew that it was trash. And, with the gradual
collapse of the mainstream B-movie in the 1950s, and the corresponding rise of
the science fiction B-movie, the trash that you saw him in was increasingly
science-fictional. And this was where Bissell truly made his mark: even when he
strayed from the genre later in his career, he almost invariably portrayed a
doctor, scientist, or general, exploiting his aura of kitsch gravitas developed
from playing innumerable such roles amidst unpersuasively rendered aliens and
monsters.

Was he a great actor? Of course not, as is
amply evidenced by his laughably over-the-top star performances as the mad
scientists in I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage
Frankenstein (although, admittedly, Laurence OLIVIER himself couldn't have
done much with those roles). But these may not represent a fair measure of his
abilities, since Bissell clearly did not enjoy being the center of attention,
where nervousness seemingly inclined him toward shrill overacting. In
supporting roles, however, he was far more restrained and, with astounding
consistency, always just good enough to avoid becoming a distraction. Thus, he
might be better remembered, say, as the friend reacting to the narrative of Rod
TAYLOR's Time Traveler in The
Time Machine, the hapless scientist staring at a jazzed-up television
screen displaying the latest antics of James Darren and Robert Colbert in The
Time Tunnel, or the unhelpful bureaucrat advising William
SHATNER's Captain
Kirk from afar in Star Trek's "The Trouble with Tribbles"—one of his
briefest yet most prominent performances. Away from the spotlight, Bissell
could contentedly fondle a pipe or twiddle with the dials of some machine, in
his own small way contributing, by means of his gray hair and visible maturity,
a touch of credibility to the inane goings-on around him.

As one of the most indefatigable foot soldiers
in the science fiction wars of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Bissell must
command our sympathy and respect, if not our admiration. Day after day, week
after week, Bissell got out of bed, showered and shaved, and went off to
perform in whatever part his agent could find, always answering the call no
matter how humiliatingly small or desperately stupid the assignment was. Today Bonanza,
tomorrow I Dream of Jeannie, next week Voyage to the Bottom of the
Sea .... A list of his genre performances, recently expanded to include
several previously overlooked items, does not convey the full scope of his
unending labors in countless westerns, crime dramas, and situation comedies.
Few people have seen all, or even a majority, of his roles, but in a sense that
is not important, since Bissell invariably performs with the same distinctive
blandness; thus, I recently had the opportunity to see one of his most obscure
appearances, the "Christmas on the Moon" episode of Men into Space, but
it may as well have been assembled out of stock footage from earlier films,
since the performance was as characteristically Whit-Bissellish as all the
others.

It is easy to deduce, watching him on the
screen and examining his credits, that Bissell was a likable and reliable
actor, qualities that make one endearing to directors, so it is not surprising
that he was regularly employed by directors ranging from Irwin
ALLEN to John
FRANKENHEIMER, who gave Bissell
some rare upscale exposure in The Manchurian Candidate, Birdman of
Alcatraz (1962), and Seven Days in May. Rarely offered a part that
represented any sort of a challenge, and unsuited for such challenges in any
event, Bissell found fulfillment in the simple tasks of memorizing his lines,
never missing a cue, and playing the same part over and over again.

Strangely enough, behind the scenes, it was
quite a different story, since Bissell emerged as a major figure in the Screen
Actors Guild, and after retiring from acting in the 1980s, Bissell moved into a
home for elderly Hollywood actors and became a leader in their community—surely
not because he sought recognition, but only because he felt obliged, as always,
to respond to a need, and because his fellow actors could count on him to speak
for their interests in an energetic and responsible manner. After his death in
1996, manipulated footage from "The Trouble with Tribbles" allowed him to
reprise that typically minor role in "Trials and Tribble-ations," an
episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine—even from the grave, he dutifully
managed to come back to the set and do Whit Bissell one more time.